RevCyn

Tom Schade has dubbed the rebranding effort of the UUA a #thanklesstask . Yeah, he's right. And I don't want to heap on the criticism.  I believe the UUA is working hard to turn our ship in the right direction, and this is the work that they ought to be doing, and they're getting a lot of flack about it, much of which is unfair. But... You know how I've been saying that the UUA has been telling us "more is coming" and the logo was just the "tip of the iceberg" with regards to the branding?  And, at the same time, nobody has published the roadmap of where they're going, and even when you're asking, they won't tell you what it is? And how Dawn Cooley said, " surprised people react poorly "?  Well... As reported in Boston Magazine : Proverb also worked with the UUs to shorten their seven core principles, making them easier to remember, and has suggested putting them into “some sort of acronym form so that they’re eas...

A friend and colleague asks, "When did our Principles ever lead us to a place we didn't already want to go?" It's a bit like asking "When is something truly altruistic?"  The fact that I did something might argue that to some extent I wanted to do it -- that I felt doing it served some purpose.  But sweeping aside the philosophical question, I think I can point to places our Principles have led me that I was at least conflicted about.  The first time I remember being pushed by my principles to do something that I was uncomfortable doing was in graduate school.  I became aware that I had what I knew was an unreasonable fear of people with HIV/AIDS.  And I felt that my principles called me to address my fear and get over it.  And so I volunteered to spend my spring break with the Alternative Spring Break program working for the Mobile (AL) AIDS Support Services.  I've written about that experience in this blog before. The next time I felt like my ...

Last year I did a series of post about "Chalica," a holiday that's been invented in which Unitarian Universalists may spend the first full week of December reflecting and acting on the seven Principles. Last year I focused on Chalica for the whole week, and I did find that meaningful. This year, however, I'm focused on a different idea for a Unitarian Holiday. December 17th is the day Unitarian Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol was published. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we all spent every December 17th remembering the Unitarian ideals he brought to Christmas with that publication, and acting in a way consistent with Scrooge's transformation?

Unitarian Universalists from all over the country have headed off to Salt Lake City this week for our annual General Assembly , which starts tomorrow. The twitter reports, blog posts, and facebook status updates are already pouring in, and I'm enjoying reading them, for I will not be at General Assembly this year. General Assembly is where we vote on the business of the association, and it's an important year this year, for two major reasons. The first is that it's our first contested presidential election in eight years. (In case I forget this fact, there are about eight e-mails from the two candidates that pour into my inbox daily, despite the fact that I've already mailed in my absentee ballot.) During all this time I did not endorse a candidate. I believe that both candidates are good and worthy people. The lists of endorsements are so long that an endorsement of a small-town minister like myself wouldn't even merit an e-mail anyway! I haven't seen in any of...

The Commission on Appraisal put forward a draft proposal for revision of the UU principles that I wrote about here and then here and here . Having heard all the feedback sent to them on this draft proposal, they've now issued their final proposal . A fine commentary on how the questions raised by the cultural misappropriation section are left unanswered is given by James Ford at Monkeymind here , and so I'll just say I agree with his analysis of this, and say that combined with the passage that states, "When we fall short of living up to this covenant, we will begin again in love, repair the relationship, and recommit to the promises we have made" under the C-23 "Principles" section, but which would seem to apply to the whole Article II "Covenant" section under which the sources fall as well, it seems to propose that there actually be a prescribed process for addressing "misuse of cultural and religious practices" that is troublesome gi...

In honor of the somewhat newly created, and not yet fully embraced, holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. This is my post for Sunday. Day Seven: Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part. Today's donation goes to the World Wildlife Fund , in honor of my brother-in-law, Cseh Peter. It's been an interesting week, focusing on the principles. I've enjoyed it, the opportunity to spend a piece of each day reflecting on my faith and how to practice it. It was harder than I expected, too, to think about and write about each principle, and think about how to honor it best. In the end, I think it's changed my relationship with Christmas and the rest of these December holidays, too. Finally I have taken my gift-giving and connected it to what I believe, in a way that is relevant for me, in this society, rather than honoring Jesus, a long-ago teacher. Although I believe he is still impo...

In honor of the somewhat newly created, and not yet fully embraced, holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. This is my post for Saturday. Day Six: The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all. This is one of the largest principles, with arms to cover the whole world. Peace is, after all, the ultimate goal. All the other things--justice, liberty, truth, equity, compassion, inherent worth and dignity, respect for the interdependent web, the democratic process--all these other elements of our principles are steps to peace or results of it. If we can have peace, I think we can have the whole lot of them. It's inconcievable that we might achieve true peace without justice, for example. How do we get there? My thoughts turn first to Maya Angelou, whose poem "Amazing Peace" I have used at Christmas Eve for the last few years: Maya Angelou recites her Christmas poem A brief excerpt: We, Angels and M...

In honor of the somewhat newly created, and not yet fully embraced, holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. This is my post for Friday. Day Five: The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large. This year being such an exciting election year, I feel like I've already reflected and written extensively on the democratic process. That being the case, let me point you to some other great words on democracy and this past election that inspired me. Jim Wallis - " My Personal 'Faith Priorities' for This Election " Forrest Church - " Religion and the Body Politic " Where we struggle with democracy is when the vote goes against what we wanted, of course, and the results of a vote can easily go against one of our other principles. However, we must remain true to the idea of democracy, even when we disagree with the results of it. I'm not g...

In honor of the created holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. This is my late night post for Thursday. Day Four: A free and responsible search for truth and meaning. Tonight we had our community forum /outreach committee meeting. This is the principle we hold before us on the committee the most as we plan our forums. It's also a principle near and dear to my heart. Right now, in particular, I'm trying to instill this principle in others through teaching at the community college. I was raised with education as a primary value. I come from a long line of educators, with two parents with education degrees, and three out of four grandparents who worked in education. In my family, my husband and I both teach college, as well as my father. My mother and one sister work for the University of Michigan, and one brother-in-law for Michigan State University. My other sister teaches in Detroit public schools, and my other b...

In honor of the created holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. This is my post for Wednesday, although since it's after midnight it is actually Thursday. Late board meeting--what can I say? Day Three: Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations. One of the things that I love about our faith is that it doesn't stand still. We're always open to new revelation, always moving forward. One of the most tragic and moving events of this year for Unitarian Universalists was the shooting at the Tennessee Valley UU Church in Knoxville. One of the things we saw in the aftermath of the event was the third principle in action. The church community responded with grace, dignity, and compassion. And churches all across the community there responded to them. And churches all across the nation responded. At our church, one member said to me after our vigil how important it was that we h...

In honor of the created holiday " Chalica ," I'm doing a series of posts on the Seven Principles this week. Day Two: Justice, equity, and compassion in human relations. Yesterday I wrote about LBGT issues, and so I won't repeat that today, although there are a lot of justice and equity issues there. However, the agency I'm donating to today is the Human Rights Commission . This donation is in honor of my mother, who has been a consistent advocate for LGBT rights for many years, in church, educational, and workplace settings, and who is an inspiration to me. But to talk some more about justice, equity, and compassion.... This has been a year when we've talked a lot about equity at our church, particularly about the lack of equity caused by racism. And racism has been a subject in the news a lot this year, too. Obama's winning the presidency is, admittedly, a huge triumph, and a large step towards equity in our society. People are talking about Obama as a ...

Someone on Facebook posted a link to a created holiday, "Chalica," and I decided to give it a go. In honor of "Chalica" in which we light a chalice and honor our principles for seven days in December, I'm going to try to write about what each principle means to me each day this week. Day One: The inherent worth and dignity of every person The suggestions for honoring this principle included writing a letter of apology or inviting someone to dinner that you disagreed with. That would take more preparation than I've given this, so I thought about the groups of people who have been most devalued in our society: religious minorities, particularly Muslims and Atheists, both of whom are reviled by many but in very different ways; gays and lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people; homeless people; imprisoned people; people with mental disabilities; people with psychological disorders; people with physical disabilities; and many, many more who find themselves o...

Since the Interdependent Web quoted my previous post on cultural misappropriation, I've been doing some more thinking on the subject. It's not that I don't think cultural misappropriation is to be avoided. We all should strive to be as sensitive to other cultures as possible. It's that I think a code of conduct, at this point, on the issue is not really possible. (And putting cultural misappropriation in our bylaws feels close to establishing a code of conduct on this issue and may, indeed, lead to one.) We haven't defined sufficiently what is and what is not cultural misappropriation. I was at a workshop on this issue at our General Assembly a couple of years ago in which it was seriously suggested that, essentially, if something is done well, it's okay, if a piece of music is done poorly, then it's misappropriation. I have significant disagreement with that rule, as one is who is not the greatest musician! Can I never, therefore, be using something from ...

UU minister James Ford has written a very thoughtful piece on one piece of the proposed revision of the Principles and Purposes here . It's definitely worth reading. He focuses in on the proposed sentence in the section on "sources": “Grateful for the traditions that have strengthened our own, we strive to avoid misappropriation of cultural and religious practices and to seek ways of appreciation that are respectful and welcomed.” I completely skipped this sentence when I gave some of my thoughts a week ago, so let me address this sentence, as well. James Ford says (I've deleted some, show by the elipses; the entirety is worth reading): The problem is enshrinement in By-Laws, and therefore raising the possibility of institutionally defining appropriate behaviors and with that the possibility of punishment and expulsion for offenders, particularly ministers. And this is not paranoia. Already a trial balloon of this sort was raised for the minister’s ethical guidelines...

The UUA's Commission on Appraisal (COA), which is an review body independent of the UUA board, takes on a different subject pertinent to the UU association every three years. Recently, they have been studying Article II of the UUA bylaws, better known as our "Principles and Purposes," as Article II was required to be reviewed every 15 years (we're a bit late). The COA has just posted their draft of a proposal for the P&P, including many large changes. If you're interested, they can be found here . It's important to note that the COA can't change the P&P document, which is part of the UUA bylaws. Nor can the UUA board of trustees. It has to be voted on in two subsequent general assemblies by the delegates--that means representatives of churches and their ministers. If you follow the link and read the draft document, you will find a survey there where you can leave your thoughts and feelings. Then the COA will meet again and consider the survey respo...